own the block on Coral Way, there was a man yelling into his phone at someone named Preston. It was a post-boat show rant that started with deals gone sour, passed through pronouns and deworming medicine, and was reaching some kind of climax about, “No, we had to kill it in order to save it! Yes, let it die. This is this and that is that! I don’t care who knows!”
We neither cared nor wanted to know, either, so we picked up and kept walking. No burger was worth that kind of ambience.
(Amoretto Ashley for The Gibson Room)
From the outside, The Gibson Room seems like part of the usual Coral Way scene. Inside, however, it’s full of surprises.
As it turned out, this was the right move. Five, maybe six doors down was an awning. By car, it could have been mistaken for the back entrance to a bike shop. On foot, though, it was clearly something different. A surprise.
The Gibson Room, as we realized, is never what you expect it to be. It’s better.
Let the incurious and their patient Prestons insist on sorting experiences into narrow, limited categories. For the Biscayne Tippler, the gates to paradise open in the unlikeliest places, as long as you have eyes to see them.
Hidden in Plain Sight
(Amoretto Ashley for The Gibson Room)
Tom Lasher-Walker, the “One-Minute Mixologist,” has made The Gibson Room a destination for singular spirits.
Even on paper, The Gibson Room is unlikely. It’s located at 2224 SW 22nd St. (305.570.4311) in Shenandoah, a liminal zone within a liminal city. The neighborhood was founded in 1919 but is usually defined by what it’s not: not as far south or fancy as Coral Gables, not as funky nor far east as Coconut Grove, not downtown, not Little Havana, not Brickell. It’s in between. That’s part of its charm.
The neighborhood is full of Spanish-style homes built not by Spaniards but by developers from the Steel Belt in the 1920s and ’30s. In between the older houses, cinder-block ranch homes try to fit in with barrel-tile roofs and muted earth-tone paint jobs. It’s a nice suburban neighborhood, in other words.
Not the kind of place you’d expect to find a world-class night out. Shenandoah also seems impervious to hipster-ization. Unlike South Beach in the ’70s, or the Design District and Wynwood in the ’90s, or even Midtown 10 years ago, it’s … nice? If there’s any kind of edginess here, it’s a pleasant edge. Not the place one would go looking for a revolution.
“In terms of ‘fitting into the neighborhood,’ it’s not really something that we wanted to overcomplicate,” said Tom Lasher-Walker, The Gibson Room’s director of beverage development and operations.
He’s a handsome young man with a wide smile, brightly tattooed arms and an accent from his home in the north of England not far from the Scottish border.
“The space was and continues to be a massive part of the neighborhood,” he added. “We’re just offering something that hasn’t been executed before but we know the local community wanted to experience.”
Not too long ago, this location housed a different kind of bar, The Mighty. But last July, it traded its craft beers for gin and vermouth, and the kitchen (which had always served some better-than-expected gastropub fare and fresh oysters) went and earned an entry in the Michelin Guide.
(Amoretto Ashley for The Gibson Room)
The Kentucky River is made with bourbon, cacao and peach bitters.
“Hopefully they’ll see us as more than just a bar,” said Lasher-Walker. “We’re an establishment that serves incredible food and fantastic cocktails. Both things can live side by side.”
The taxidermied deer head which once stood sentinel over the bathroom doors now has pride of place in the middle of a dining room wall, next to a jackalope. The Michelin editors say, “The menu does not fit into a tidy box” and there are “no limits to what you’ll find or how long you’ll stay.”
Lasher-Walker is a little more modest.
“Cheap drinks and good times are always things that people want; but so is good food, quality service and a relaxed environment with live music,” he said. “Some people might not want that all at the same time – which is completely fine – but by offering different experiences under one roof we’re able to show the neighborhood that they don’t need to travel far for a great night out.”
Local to the Interzone
Perhaps one of the most Miami things about The Gibson Room is that it’s not self-consciously “Miami.” A lot of local watering holes lean into mojitos and cigars, 1960s tropical retro-glam or art deco neon pastels. You know, Miami stuff. Visitors love that. (And, true confessions, a few of us natives do, too.)
But this place is relentlessly just itself.
“Going to a bar or restaurant in Miami and still feeling like you’re in Miami is absolutely fine. But I think The Gibson does something different,” explained Lasher-Walker. “The taxidermy, the dark walls, the huge wooden bartop and back bar, the piano; none of these things are Miami.
“I’ve had guests say they feel like they’re in Boston or Chicago or somewhere else like D.C. or New York … even though there’s a huge marlin on the wall next to the bar!”
The cocktail menu offers familiar classics done with a slight difference. A white Negroni doesn’t use Campari, but crystal-clear Luxardo Bitter Bianco. A Beny’s Daiquiri starts with aged rum and lime, but ventures into new territory with bananas and spicy, smooth velvet falernum. And of course, top of the menu is the House Gibson, which lists sherry among its ingredients.
Lasher-Walker has kept its exact proportions a house secret. But he does have advice for those mixing one at home: “Make sure your vermouth is cold, make sure your gin is of good quality, make sure your onions are crunchy and that your martini glasses come straight from the freezer.”
The Gibson cocktail is one of the oldest on the books, with some of the
(Amoretto Ashley for The Gibson Room)
The Gibson, a classic gin cocktail, is mixed to simple perfection at the bar that bears its name – with ice-cold glassware and vermouth, high-quality gin and crunchy onions.
earliest recipes going back to the 1890s – and, thus, a long legacy of variations. At its simplest, it’s a dry martini with no bitters and cocktail onions rather than olives. Difford’s Guide recommends a 5:1 ratio of gin to dry vermouth, but that leads to some unusual fractions when mixing a single drink, not to mention impossible math if you’re drinking more than one. Older recipes mix the gin with two kinds of vermouth, dry and sweet. It’s quite possible The Gibson Room uses this old trick, but with dry sherry in place of the sweet vermouth.
A CLASSIC GIBSON
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 ounces gin (London-style dry; Magic City XXI would be a locally made option)
- 1/4 ounce extra-dry vermouth
- 1/4 ounce Italian vermouth
- Two pickled onions for garnish
METHOD
- Stir, don’t shake, gin and vermouths over large ice cube; strain into very chilled martini glass, garnish with skewered onions and serve.
Lasher-Walker might not share all of his bar’s secrets, but he is more than willing to share time-tested tips for mixing drinks. He’s got a side hustle on YouTube and Facebook as the host of “,” a video series teaching viewers how to make classic drinks in one minute or less.
Otherwise, he’s busy making The Gibson Room the best bar it can be.
“The perfect bar doesn’t exist,” he said, “but great bars do – and that’s what we want to be.”